What options help you/AI?

[Theben]

I just finished a Monarch game where I trounced the AI in every conceivable way- militarily, culturally, technologically, and built every wonder in the game except Stonehenge and founded 3 religions/ 3 corps. I was aiming for a spaceship win but couldn't avoid the cultural win.

However I didn't get my tech any faster than most previous games, although I did slow it down a bit at the end b/c no one was near my level. I attribute a large chunk of it to having selected Custom Continents at game start- not that I got to customize them (more like random) but there were more than the standard 2-3. There were 5, with 2 civs per continent except Monty who was all by himself. However the continents were far enough apart that no continent could meet another until caravels were built. Since I built the GW my AI neighbor (Justinian) had barb problems and I beelined IronWorking and took him out early. After about 200 turns it was obvious I was winning.

The other options that may have affected my victory were raging barbs and agg AI, as neighboring civs fought often and therefore didn't trade tech much, nor did one get a strong advantage over another by piling other civs on a foe.

What other options do you think make the game easier for you or the AI?

[LDiCesare]

I think the more isolated, the harder for all players.
Aggressive AI makes the game slightly harder for the player early on, but usually easier long term as AI's tend to waste energy on wars. You have to warmonger a bit or be isolated to profit from it, but I'd say that's always the case.
My last game was Monarch, all civs ended up on one big continent (other big islands were settled later on but I never set foot on them), domination win by vassalizing almost everyone. Aggressive ai made the ai waste lots of energy on wars which they didn't wage too well. They didn't seem to raze as much as I did and aren't opportunistic/careful enough (one of them was still stupid enough to leave a worker without protection on the border of his territory when my first warrior was moving around...).
Almost all of the cities the ai took reverted back to their owner after a while. I think it was militarily, but I allow taken cities to revert due to culture, so I'm not 100% sure. I think the replay shows differently conquests and culture flips so most would have been conquered back (I culture-flippped a capital by the way ).

[joncnunn]

"No Tech Brokering" benefits those that discover techs by keeping those who buy it from in turn reselling it.

AI will waste a lot of production on military units when "always peace" is on.

The AI will perform better if all victory modes are enabled.

On both region scripts & huge pangena maps, raging barbs can effectively throw the game to whoever builds the Great Wall.

No villages will disadvantage those who start with Scouts. Starting at a certain difficulty level the handicap xml starts granting all AIs one.

[Hauptman]

Anything that effects tech trading will slow AI progress. Civs like mansa and the indians live to trade techs, so when they cant, they usually get trounced.

Personally I found emperor difficulty with no tech brokering on gives me a real fighting chance to keep up with AI's tech wise. Click off no-brokering and Huyana will invariably kill off my macemen with his stacks of infantry. That had to be my saddest game ever....

[joncnunn]

I find turning "no tech brokering" off opens up the following human exploit when you have knowledge via spying of what the AI is researching and how far away:

When the AI is only one turn away from finishing the researching of a tech you already have, check how much gold he has and how much he'll give you, if it's less than the gold he has, take the deal getting the free cash while not really helping his research progress.

[wodan11]

I never quite get exploits. I mean, it's clearly an exploit. Why not just open WB and give yourself some cash?

[Unimatrix11]

Isnt it like, if the AI is one turn away from a tech, it wont even negotiate buying it? At least thats my experience - but i do turn tech brockering off, simply because i dont like to do it - hence my experience should not be overrated maybe.

[joncnunn]

The only times the AI with no tech brokering off won't negotiate for a tech is if it's worth less than 5 gold to them.

Now with no tech brokering on, the AI refuses a lot sooner than that. (50% researched?)

Isnt it like, if the AI is one turn away from a tech, it wont even negotiate buying it? At least thats my experience - but i do turn tech brockering off, simply because i dont like to do it - hence my experience should not be overrated maybe.

[Arrian]

No tech brokering clearly favors the human. I don't use that one. My wife does, though.

No tech trading... this, I think, depends on both difficulty level and how the early game plays out. I imagine that it would tend to allow a runaway victory. So if you get ahead, you should stay ahead (unless you seriously screw up). I'm not really sure, since I don't think I've ever used this option.

I think raging barbs helps the human - at least at lower difficulty levels. I can imagine that it might be unhelpful at the highest levels.

Agg AI... not sure, really. They might be more inclined to hit me (thus harder), but they're also more inclined to pick fights with each other (advantage me, usually).

Maps... isolation is usually bad for any Civ, but is probably worse for an AI than a human, because the human can adapt better to that situation. I play hemispheres maps 2 continents almost exclusively now, but I have sometimes played games where I got my own continent, or shared a smallish one with 1 (soon to be dead) AI civ. I generally did well in those games. I could neglect my military & build like a madman, angling for a tech lead (and, thereby, first contact & trading opportunities with the other civs).

-Arrian

[wodan11]

No tech brokering clearly favors the human.

A human that doesn't broker much will be at a disadvantage if he allows the AIs to broker amongst themselves. So, as long as the human doesn't use or isn't highly skilled at trading strategies, then No tech brokering would favor the human.

However, a human can broker MUCH more effectively than the AIs. (Specifically, SE. SE enables some of the strongest "tech trading" strategies there are.) Thus if the human in question is capable of using and abusing brokering, then No tech brokering would clearly favor the AI.

No tech trading... this, I think, depends on both difficulty level and how the early game plays out. I imagine that it would tend to allow a runaway victory. So if you get ahead, you should stay ahead (unless you seriously screw up). I'm not really sure, since I don't think I've ever used this option.

Somewhat. However, more important IMO is that it tends to favor humans and AIs that build earlier and stronger infrastructure.

I think raging barbs helps the human - at least at lower difficulty levels.

Depends on if the human knows how to deal with it. Difficulty level does not necessarily correspond to knowledge. The AIs tend to have units out exploring or just plain wandering. This amounts to de facto fogbusting. Humans, OTOH, tend to not waste time (and risk their units getting killed by bears or barbs) doing this, unless they specifically are fogbusting.

[joncnunn]

It might be note worthy for the ranging barbs that as the difficulty level goes up the human barb bonus goes away while the AI still keeps it's same barb bonus level.

(I've already mentioned The Great Wall on a post higher in this thread)

Yup, I spend a lot less time exploring my own land mass in Civ IV than I did in previous games. And it seems I get more and more "lazy" about this all the time. Distant contacts are useless until one or the other of you have the Alphabet.

[Arrian]

It might be note worthy for the ranging barbs that as the difficulty level goes up the human barb bonus goes away while the AI still keeps it's same barb bonus level.

That's what I meant. On lower levels, the AI is at a comparative disadvantage. Say Prince, my usual level. The AI has a bigger combat bonus than I do, but I'm a whole lot better at handling my military. My production is roughly at parity with the AI. Advantage me. On, say, Emperor, I have basically no combat bonus vs barbs, while the AI retains its advantage. In addition, it now has significant production (and research) boosts. Maybe I'm wrong, having not really dabbled with Emperor much, but it seems like raging barbs on that level would favor the AI.

Point taken, however, re: tech brokering, Wodan.

-Arrian

[joncnunn]

The main counter though, is I think if a human makes the effort to, they can still easily get the Great Wall faster the Emperor level AIs. When that happens, it doesn't really matter what level your playing, the barbs all go after the AIs and the human can keep forces entirely within their great wall except for brief excursions to found another city.

[Theben]

Having just made the switch from Monarch to Emperor I'd 2nd that. But it seems that things that I've listed switch from helping me to helping the AI at higher levels.

I guess it just depends on how fast you get you tech.

[wodan11]

If you're prepared, barbs aren't a negative, they're free XP. You can't "double dip" with the great wall and get double XP from barbs. And building the great wall is a good number of fewer axemen or chariots you have available.